Sad malpractice case involving a brain damaged child, but an appellate court in Canada seems worried that the trial judge, ruling in favor of the Plaintiff, adopted most of its opinion verbatim from the Plaintiff’s submissions. Worried enough that it reversed.

Now the Supreme Court of Canada is going to weigh in.

Most trial and appellate lawyers have probably seen judicial opinions which seem to substantially incorporate the submissions of the party the court sided with, although from the description this case might seem excessive in that regard. But this is not regarded a “plagiarism” by a judge, and it hardly seems a basis for reversal, having nothing to do with the merits of the case.